die Geschwister
by DragonLadyRM
Summary: Introspection from each member of Schwarz, having to do with family. Oneshot, 700 words. After Kapitel ep22, before ep24.


**Title: die Geschwister**

I.

He had been an only child. If pressed, he would have said he suspected his parents were too busy to spend the time necessary to procreate again. They'd had one child: the family name was secure, the hereditary goal met; why waste time making another? Besides, it could cause problems if there was a second one. There was no guarantee a second child would be another gender, after all, and their holdings spread into lands where primogeniture wasn't an automatic assumption.

Miss having a brother or a sister? The question was pointless. How could you miss something you'd never had?

II.

He'd had a sister, younger than he. She was both his torment and delight: she followed him everywhere but her worship of him was absolute. In her eyes, he could do no wrong. Maybe it was her devotion that was too much for God, the jealous creature. Just look at the first Commandment: "Thou shall have no other Gods before me." _He_ had been her God. Her trust made him think himself invulnerable to whatever the Devil could devise. How was he to know the true danger was from Above?

In his dreams he could admit how he missed that love. Maybe this sleeping girl could be his sister. Wouldn't it spite God to find Lazarus wasn't a miracle reserved for him alone?

He'd have to wait to see if it would happen. Till then, he would protect her. Not because she was his sister but because she might be.

III.

It wasn't a topic others raised around him. It wasn't one he pursued. He admitted it to himself only in his dreams, when his barriers were thinnest of all.

He was the oldest. It was his duty to look after them. When THEY had appeared, he should have sacrificed himself to save her, not vice versa. It wasn't until he had spent (survived) several years with THEM he discovered they would have killed her no matter what had been said or done. A singleton formerly doubled was more vulnerable to manipulation, after all. What they didn't know in their arrogance was he was vulnerable to more, much more. She was their buffer, his barrier, while he had been their strength, her right arm. Once she was gone, all he could do was attack. She was the defender.

But worse was knowing he had failed in the most important task of all. "Look after your little brother," they told him as Vati put him (so tiny! so helpless!) in his arms when Mutti returned from hospital. They asked so little and had given so much. Of course he would do this. Later, bitterly, he admitted of _course_ he failed. The world was cruel and he was flawed.

Of course, being who and what he was, he savored the irony it was in THEIR work he received a second chance. He wouldn't fail this brother. And would do what he could to return one sister to a brother, even it wasn't him.

IV.

He remembered little of the time before. There was _hungry_ and _cold_ and _hurt_. It wasn't until he was with them that he realized there had been another ache and it was _alone_. Like the other ones, it was remedied; but unlike the others it was done without words or pronouncements from the Masters on how he should be grateful that this need was met. It was strange it wasn't until they were away from those same Masters that he realized what they were to him. Sometimes he wondered if he was the same to them.

_Teammate_ was a safe word, he found, but _brother_ was not. But when they were on their own in Japan, he watched the Others (normals, phah!) and saw them interact with one another; and while he couldn't say it aloud, he thought _brother_ was the best match was for what they were to each other.

Except for the asshole and slut, but then that relationship didn't count. The slut had a way of throwing things off balance, anyway. Who else could make teasing and head rubs feel like reassurances that he was wanted and valued, not only for his abilities but also his failings?

-end-

Notes:  
- In the canon timeline, gasp! Follows _Kapitel_ episode 22 but before episode 24.  
- Word counts, for the curious: 100, 150, 250, 200 words, respectively, for a total of 700.  
- Verb tense abuse, but then, that's the guys. It's their thoughts. Blame them. - Unless you think it doesn't sound like them, then blame _me_. (grins)  
- Schwarz in this ficlet, if you hadn't figured that out. Two of the backgrounds are completely invented; of those, one I blame on realizing there was at least ONE melodramatic cliché that the Weiss-writers hadn't used. (Yet, anyway. facepalm) I'm already thinking about following up on that one, by the way.  
Not telling, but if you want to know the title's meaning, Google the LEO German-English dictionary (and proceeds to whistle innocently).


End file.
